How To Stay Platonic Friends
by The Ramen Club
Summary: Even though it's been almost a year since the war ended, Shikamaru is having a hard time coming to terms with his 'dream'.


**Author's note**: Because I still haven't gotten over Chapter 678. Also, I was inspired by my favourite scene in The Amazing Spiderman 2...

**DISCLAIMER**: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN 2!

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**How To Stay Platonic Friends**

Months after the war had ended, and everybody had returned to their normal day-to-day lives, Shikamaru hadn't stopped thinking about the dream he had when he was trapped in the Infinite Tsukiyomi. His friends constantly tried to pry him, especially Naruto and Ino being as snooty as they were, to tell them about his dream. He didn't spill a word. He had narrated the whole thing to Choji who vowed to the 'code of silence' and didn't tell a soul. He wasn't surprised. He always knew his lazy best friend didn't think of a certain Suna kunoichi to be as troublesome as he often stated. He didn't give any remarks. He knew Shikamaru, being a genius, would put the pieces together and figure it out eventually. Unfortunately, he was wrong. Many months passed and Shikamaru still had no clue as to why Temari had appeared in his dream out of nowhere. It was as unimaginable as shogi pieces falling from the sky. He would often stroll the streets of the village in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, for he was afraid the dream might come back. He didn't tell Choji about his persistent uneasiness. He knew very well that Choji would tell him something he was aware of but did not want to hear.

Shikamaru reluctantly told Temari one day about his dream adding that it had nothing to do with what he actually felt. They were having lunch together at Ichiraku Ramen after a hectic day of paper work. Temari had stopped between slurping noodles from her chopstick and looked at him, slightly alarmed. He feared she would probably burst out laughing or mock him for having such a bizarre fantasy, but she did neither. In fact, to his utter surprise, she recalled her own dream and how he had made a cameo in it. And then she trailed off. At that point, they both turned red in the face and averted to their bowls of ramen, looking at them with as much concentration as one would while reading a map. In the end, they agreed that they were just dreams and didn't have to mean anything. They admitted how neither of them was interested in dating and, after a hot cup of tea, agreed to forget about the dreams and any feelings they might have for each other bordering on romantic. Shikamaru couldn't, however.

He never wanted to be in a relationship with anyone. He always wanted an easy going life. He knew the dream really didn't mean anything, just like it didn't for some of his friends. Ino would never have Sai and Sasuke fighting over her, Kiba would never become hokage and Lee would never win Sakura's love because she was still pining after sasuke. But then why did he not stop thinking about it? About him looking at his parents, and Asuma and his little family, and her standing right next to him; agreeing with him that marriage was troublesome? He couldn't find a reason as to why his stomach would churn and his palms would sweat everytime at the mere mention of her name. Almost a year passed until he finally decided to settle the raging war of conflicted feelings going on inside of him once and for all.

When Temari visited Konoha for her ambassador duties, he greeted her in the casual manner- with an impassive face and his hands dug inside his pants' pockets. She treated him in the usual way as well, and was escorted by him to her inn. He was somewhat aware of the uncanny bond he had with her that he didn't have with anyone else, but he didn't want to make it into something official and give it a label; like most of the people in his life did. Their relationships ended in a very short span of time, except for Naruto and Hinata who had been going strong for six months now. He didn't want to ruin whatever it was that he had with her, which was probably why she appeared in his dream that represented his deepest desire. He told her to meet him the very next day to discuss something. At first she looked at him quizzically, but then nodded in affirmation and retreated to her inn without saying another word.

Shikamaru kicked the pebbles on the street right outside the Konoha hot springs- his rendezvous point. It was a little after dawn and he was feeling rather groggy. It was unusual for him to be up this early when nearly half the village was still asleep, but he wanted to get through with it without any sort of intrusions. After 5 minutes of waiting, Temari finally arrived, properly dressed and without a hint of missed sleep on her face. He admired how ready and alert she always was.

"Isn't it rather odd for you to be voluntarily up this early?" she teased.

"I just wanted to be done with it as soon as possible", he sighed, digging his hands in his pockets.

"Done with what?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

He contemplated for a while on how to begin. He had thought of over a 100 different ways to start the conversation but they had all dissipated the minute he saw her approaching him. He took a deep breath and gulped the lump of words that had formed in his throat.

"Okay look", he began. "I haven't stopped thinking about the dream. It constantly haunts me because I have no idea what it meant and I don't think I ever will. But I want to keep our friendship, okay? I know we can't be together and we don't want to be together, but I want us to stick to being _platonic_ friends."

Temari studied him for a moment, unable to understand what could have been going on in his mind. For one thing, she hadn't forgotten about her dream either, but she was in no way hoping that Shikamaru would ask her out. She knew very well he wouldn't, so she wanted to keep their friendship as well.

"Okay", she spoke in a low voice. "But our so called friendship is what led us to have those dreams in the first place."

"That's because maybe it wasn't completely platonic then. But it can be. No one will get hurt this way."

"Alright, genius what do you want us to do?" she queried.

"Well I came up with an idea. We can set some ground rules."

"Ground rules?" she scoffed. "Like what?" They began walking the empty streets of Konoha.

"We can stop doing all those things that the other person finds amusing." At this, Temari burst into a fit of laughter while Shikamaru looked at her incredulously.

"Okay I have rule number one", he piped. "No more laughing like that."

"What?" she whined. "I can't laugh?"

"No you can't. It's very distracting", he tried to look as serious as possible.

"Okay but what if it's like a really obnoxious laugh?" she inquired, grinning at him

"Obnoxious?"

"Yeah like", and she grabbed her tummy and laughed as loudly and disturbingly as she possibly could. Like one of those fat uncles with protruding bellies.

"No. No. Not that", Shikamaru vigorously shook his head.

"Why is it too annoying?" she smirked.

"It's not annoying at all", he mumbled while looking at his feet. She couldn't help but stare at him for a bit, surprised.

"Okay well I have one for you", she finally said. "You won't give me that goofy smile while calling me 'the cruellest kunoichi'".

"That was just one time", he admitted.

"No it was more than once."

"Alright, I won't call you that. Now it's my turn." he contemplated for a moment. "You won't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"You know with your blue green eyes wide and looking expectantly at me."

"I can't shut my eyes while talking to you!" Temari retorted.

"You don't have to. Just don't look at me like that."

"Alright fine" she muttered, scratching her nose.

"And you can't scratch your nose either." Shikamaru interjected.

"Now that's just dumb! What if I have an itch?" Temari complained.

"Do it when I'm not looking" he said pointedly. She grinned at him- a result of suppressing a laugh at his oddities.

"And you can't grin at me like that either", he confessed, smiling.

"Oh for God's sake!" she cried exasperatedly. They had stopped walking and she turned to face him. "Shikamaru, do you think any of this will actually work?"

"Well... no", he sighed.

"So what are we going to do?" And for the first time in a long while, he met her gaze and he wished nothing more than to drown in that sea of blue green without holding on to anything. He could sense his palms sweating again and blurted "You're doing it again!"

"Doing what?" she yelped.

"That thing. Looking at me like that!"

"Okay that's it," she grabbed both his shoulders and looked straight into his brown eyes. "Shikamaru, we were friends before any of this. We don't have to change anything. We both know for sure that we don't want to date, then what's there to be scared of? We'll keep going like this. Like how we always were. Forget about those dreams. I just want us to go back to the way we were before, okay?" He didn't respond immediately, but he finally got the answer to what he had been asking himself for so long. He _did_ have feelings for her. He knew exactly why he had that dream and what it all meant. She _was_ more than just a friend to him, but right now, he didn't want anything to get in between that. He averted his gaze before he could act out on a whim and do something he would regret later.

"You're right", he breathed and Temari slowly let go of his shoulders. She smiled and pulled her bangs away from her eye.

"Friends?" she stretched an arm out to shake hands with him. He did the same. He felt a jolt of electricity run down his spine the minute they made contact. They stayed that way for a while, neither of them wanting to let go first. But eventually they did.

"I should get going now", said Temari. "Since I'm up, I can hit the training grounds."

"And I'll go back to sleep", Shikamaru replied, smiling sheepishly.

"Good. Well see you then." And when she was completely out of sight, Shikamaru sighed and kicked another pebble- this time much harder than before.

Staying friends was not going to be easy.


End file.
